The changing family

Like most of the world, my wife and I fell in love with John Grogan’s Marley & Me.

I bought her a copy for Valentine’s Day and in turn I received a copy for Christmas.

The tale of a young couple and the trials and tribulations of starting a family rang all too true with us and reading Marley & Me became somewhat like a checklist of things we’d also experienced with our canine companions, Buddy mostly. Some things had us a little uneasy though as we were yet to add wall eating to our own list. Thankfully we never did but with two cats also, the litter tray often proved to be a temptation.

Marley & Me is the only book since my school years that I can claim to have read numerous times and all though I’m familiar with the story, I enjoy the ride.

Like John and Jenny, my wife and I found ourselves expecting and thanks to the education given by having two cumbersome beasts, we were confident.

It was 2011 and we enlisted the help of a good friend to help document the stages of our first pregnancy through photos.

The day before our little bundle arrived, our final session caught a beautiful photo of our then family – mum and dad to be, Buddy, Honey and one baby bump ready to hatch.

Our son came home in July and a newborn crying was a sound soon adapted to by all members of the family with the knowledge of another set of hands to pet with safe in the back of two certain minds.